


Violet Delight

by yeti_butt



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Self-Reflection, Slow Build, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-15 20:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9254681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeti_butt/pseuds/yeti_butt
Summary: Satya Vatswani, aka Symmetra, is using up her required vacation days by taking a company-approved cruise around the Persian Gulf. She plans to spend the week working and designing from her room and ignoring her coworkers, but a problem arises.





	1. Sunday Night

   Satya felt the ocean breeze on her neck like a sigh. The dip and rise of the massive ship was hardly noticeable given how high up her cabin was. The private deck she was on connected to the rooms of the other Vishkar employees who were also taking their mandated vacation. It was too late to be sitting outside, much less alone. But people would talk with or without this deviation from normal behavior.

    They didn’t know they were being overheard of course, but she did wonder if their light teasing took a darker turn when they were absolutely certain she wouldn’t be able to listen. Sometimes she questioned why she was even still here. But where else would she go? Vishkar was the only place where she could make a difference, even if some of the people they were helping couldn’t see the long term plan they had for them. It wasn’t her fault they’d been raised in such hapless and dangerous environments, but it would be her fault if she allowed them to be forgotten by modern society.

    No, she wouldn’t let the underprivileged be forgotten. She knew what it felt like to live in squalor. It made her gag just to think about it. Sometimes she wondered if her real family was still alive after all these years.

    Not that it mattered. They wouldn’t remember her and she wouldn’t remember them. Her name hadn’t even been Satya to them. It had been something longer. Satya might have been her middle name though; she didn’t feel out of place with it. Maybe it had been her mother’s or sister’s. Vatswani definitely hadn’t been hers, but people change surnames all the time. It didn’t matter if she wasn’t particularly attached to hers. But Satya Vatswani had been written down at some point in the scouting process and no one had called her by anything else since.

    Maybe that’s why she didn’t mind adopting her assigned moniker, Symmetra. What harm was another name that didn’t quite belong to her? There wasn’t much hurt it could do because there wasn’t much left to hurt in the first place. No family. No friends. No partner. Satya knew that was part of her strength as an agent, her untouchability. If that made her a better architect, if that made her better fit for her job, if that allowed her to save just one more little girl from the clutches of poverty… so be it. That was the idea, at least. It didn’t stop her from feeling lonely now and again.

    Satya let took a deep breath of the moon lit air and shuddered before tiptoeing back into her room. She slid the glass door behind her with a gentle _thunk_ and pulled the curtains closed, encasing herself in darkness. She waited for a moment to let her vision adjust, but something caught her eye.

    For less than a second, her tablet’s screen lit up from where it sat on her bed. The dim flash of light was snuffed out far too quickly to be the notification of a company email or a private message from her superiors. Yet it had happened, she was sure of it. On such a quiet night in the middle of the ocean with closed blinds and an empty mind she was sure she hadn’t made it up. She slipped off her shoes and padded over to the empty glass screen and opened it with her thumbprint. She then punched in her password and allowed the front camera to scan her retina.

    At first she’d thought the new security steps had been a bit excessive, but from what she’d heard about Lumerico’s recent issues they were probably a safe bet. Not that Vishkar was anything like Lumerico turned out to be. Even so, you never could tell what those anarchist types were thinking. She wouldn’t put targeting Vishkar beneath them, even if it meant endangering people. It wasn’t like they were perfect after all. She still wasn’t sure about how trustworthy Sanjay really was. She wanted to believe in him, but things were starting to add up. Little lies here and there were harmless alone, but they all seemed to swarm together in the back of her mind whenever he spoke with her.

    While the tablet ran its security scan, Satya skimmed through the routine security report from the previous night. The usual IPs had been poking at the firewalls, but nothing had been able to penetrate the code. The program that protected her device was developed by Vishkar, but they weren’t allowed to send their findings to the authorities because technically the sort of IP tracking and back routing it utilized was illegal in most countries. This was the sort of stuff that made Satya uneasy. If this had been implemented before the whispers of a second crisis had arisen, maybe she would have objected to it. But as a coworker had said, desperate times call for desperate measures.

    The tablet vibrated, signaling the scan was complete. When she opened the report, she was surprised to find it blank. No threats detected, completely clean.

_Odd,_ she thought. _Usually the Vishkar GPS application gets flagged by mistake. Why didn’t it mark it this time? Perhaps I’ve made an error._ She fiddled with the security settings and started another scan. Again, the results were spotless.

    It was suspicious. Not enough to report the device, but enough that she wanted to perform a control run. If she intentionally downloaded malware and the scan didn’t detect it, she’d know something was wrong. Satya opened the browser and paused over the search bar. She was having trouble thinking of the malware she’d be comfortable downloading onto her work tablet. She could get something off an illegal streaming website, but those sites were usually run by experienced developers. If they had the skills to weave through copyright laws and post all the latest cinema in one place without shut down, they’d have the skills to take advantage of any information their software could stick to on her device. It would be far too risky. The easiest thing she could think of would be to go nuts clicking the ads of some pornographic website, but what would her superiors think if they found out? They already made fun of her; she didn’t need everyone thinking she was an idiot who downloaded malware _and_ a pervert.

    Satya blushed and groaned at the thought of the rumor spreading that she’d downloaded a porn virus that leaked high security information to the media. And the tabloids would just _love_ to tear her down after she was in the spotlight for that magazine cover. She pinched the bridge of her nose and weighed her options. Worst case for doing nothing was that someone really had infiltrated her tablet, disabled the security scan, and was stealing company data at this moment. Worst case for performing a control test was that the security scan was broken and any malware she downloaded wouldn’t be detected or quarantined. That would mean _she_ would be leaking the information and everyone would find out it was her. She would lose her job, her reputation, and her dignity.

    There was no perfect solution. The fastest thing to do would be to leave early when the cruise ship arrived at the first stop. From there she could fly to the closest Vishkar control center in Dubai, their final destination. But even _that_ wasn’t ideal. If she ditched on her coworkers, left for Dubai early, and it turned out to be nothing, how would that look?

    Satya grabbed one of the decorative pillows, yelled into it, and fell back onto the bed. A potentially compromised tablet meant she couldn’t do any work from it. A potentially **un** compromised tablet meant she couldn’t ditch the stupid vacation to get it fixed. She was going to have to endure an entire week on a ship full of strangers without getting ahead on her projects or using her email. She glared at the ceiling.

     _Damn it!_


	2. Monday Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Satya meets another Vishkar employee and learns something interesting.

    A loud horn startled Satya awake. She gasped and sat up, searching for a clock in the unfamiliar bedroom. How late had she slept? Had her alarm even gone off? The curtains blocked most of the sunlight from entering so she couldn’t tell immediately. Surely it couldn’t be past eight or nine or- her heart skipped a beat when she finally checked her tablet’s screen: noon.

    A moment of panic took hold of her before she remembered the events of the previous night. She wouldn’t be able to do any work from here on the ship now that her tablet was potentially insecure. That meant the schedule she’d planned out for herself would need to be redone. She unlocked that tablet and was halfway through Wednesday before she remembered she shouldn’t really be using the device at all. With some discomfort, she set it down at the end of the bed.

    “How am I going to get through six days on this ship without losing my mind to sheer boredom?” she grumbled. “I should have really packed those books…”

    An hour later, Satya was showered and dressed with her hair straightened and her makeup just right. Her sky blue eye shadow matched the ribbon around her favorite white sun dress. She’d been saving the dress for Friday’s scheduled dinner with the other Vishkar employees, but she needed some cheering up.

    As she was leaving the room, the tablet caught her attention. Maybe she could ask her coworkers for their opinion on it if she ran into them. At least she’d have something to talk about.

_I wouldn’t have to go out of my way_ , she told herself. _It’s just in case._

    With the tablet now safely tucked into purse, she placed the “do not disturb” sign on the handle and started towards the elevator.

 

* * *

 

 

    There was a large variety of entertainment on the ship. It was like having a shopping mall on top of a high class community center, but with far more bars and activities that required swimwear.  

    Satya stood at the back of the line to main lobby’s customer service desk. She figured they gave recommendations for things to do to lots of guests, but her prediction had been a little too accurate. It seemed she and her coworkers from HQ weren’t the only ones using this cruise for their mandated vacation. She was behind about thirteen others who were either in expensive looking swimwear or casual business attire. The majority were talking or typing on their mobile devices. She felt foolish for leaving her work phone in Utopaea, but she’d thought it would be excessive to bring it along with her professional tablet _and_ personal cell phone.

    “Excuse me?”

    Satya turned around at the voice and was surprised to find its owner so close. The woman was very short and covered in freckles. Her hair was done up in a blonde knot on top of her head.

    “Hey, is this the line to the help desk?”

    “Ah, yes,” Satya tried to match the friendliness of her tone.

    “Thank goodness; I’ve been wandering around for, like, an hour. This is my first vacation in a while. Is the line moving quickly?”

    “Well…” she glanced at the desk and saw the same person was being helped as when she arrived. “It’s actually at a standstill right now. I believe the man being helped is having trouble with the language, hopefully an omnic has been called who speaks his native tongue.”

    The redhead wrinkled her nose. “God, that’s obnoxious.”

    Satya felt herself tense up. So this woman was one of _those_ people.

    “I mean,” she continued. “Don’t get me wrong, I love how helpful they are, but I never know where to look or how to talk to them, y’know?”

     “…I suppose so.”

    “Yeah, it’s just like why not employ an actual translator? I get the whole live and let live thing, but how are people supposed to feed their families if everyone’s slowly being replaced. It’s fucked up.” The woman looked at Satya again with recognition. “Hey, wait, you’re Vishkar too, right?”

    “That’s right,” Satya replied. “Have we met?”

    “No, but I knew I recognized you from somewhere. My name’s Abigail, I’m from Vishkar New Jersey! I work in HR.”

    “Really.”

    “Yeah! I got a couple more options than usual for my getaway this year and I thought I might as well go all out.”

    “Well, it’s a small world I suppose,” Satya forced a smile. She was getting sick of talking to this woman. What was a Vishkar employee from America doing all the way out here at the same time as her and her coworkers from India? Hell of a coincidence. _Maybe it’s not the only coincidence_ , she thought. “Have you run into any Vishkar employees from other regions, by chance?”

    “You know, it’s weird I have. I’ve met you and Mayra from Vishkar HQ, Jun-seo from Vishkar Seoul, what’s-his-face from Vishkar Hamburg, and a couple people from Vishkar Tripoli. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few more. I guess we’re all getting this vacation stuff out of the way, huh?”

    She raised her eyebrows. “Yes, it does seem that way. Perhaps we all got the same newsletter?”

    “Ha! Yeah, maybe… Weird.”

    Satya nodded. It _was_ weird. The Vishkar cooperation was expansive for sure, but only the few highest rungs on the corporate ladder could afford to pay for something like this cruise out of pocket. This woman was either head of her department or she didn’t actually work for HR but for a more secretive department. But maybe that’s why they were all here. They all were able and willing to enjoy the best holiday money could buy. It was plausible enough. Still…

    “Abigail, have you had any trouble with your mobile devices? Mine was behaving strangely the other night.”

    “I don’t think so?” she frowned. “Honestly, I probably wouldn’t know if it was being weird. Don’t use it enough, really. Sorry!”

    “Oh, that’s okay. I’ll just ask another Vishkar employee when I see them.”

    Abigail’s cell phone rang. “Oh, I should take this. Nice meeting you!”

    Satya smiled tightly and nodded. She was grateful for an end to the performative interaction. She disliked talking to employees from different Vishkar developments. There was almost a rivalry between them. Plenty of gossip, too. She hoped she hadn’t given the American too much to work with.

    After a few more minutes of waiting for line to move forward, Satya gave up. She gave a small wave to the chattering Abigail and began walking in towards a set of glass doors that led to the main deck. Perhaps she’d be able to flag down a pool employee to give her directions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I'm building up to stuff, I promise! Thank you for the Kudos and comments!! :) They definitely give me the energy to keep writing this! Also let me know if you think I should try to do longer chapters that are released less frequently rather than what I've got going on so far. I've got the basic plot figured out, just need to work on connecting the dots and filling spaces.  
> Also the rating is G for now, but it will be updated as the story progresses when necessary! ;U


	3. Monday Afternoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sombra reflects on her situation.

           Sombra yawned and leaned back into her chair, her muscles nearly squeaking from lack of use, her lower back crying out from the pain of her hours of slouching. It was four in the afternoon, but the time zone change had been pretty brutal. It didn’t help that most of her time over the past couple days had been lounging around undercover, perhaps her punishment for working ahead of schedule, anxious to complete her mission. Browsing the internet while avoiding certain patterns in her online behavior wasn’t difficult, but it got boring pretty quick.

           Since the Volskaya incident, the Talon big shots hadn’t afforded her as many of the usual resources. They said they didn’t like failure, reminding her she was lucky to get off with a warning. If Sombra wasn’t absolutely certain she’d left nothing to prove her disobedience to the organization, she might actually be paranoid they were on to her. Nobody likes being used after all. If they found out how far her influence stretched, it would be a swift end to the relationship. That would be a little sad considering how much fun her partners had been to mess around with, but it wasn’t something she was unprepared for.

           And she did like them, Gabriel and Widowmaker. Gabe was always so serious. He seemed to take everything personally, but maybe that was just him wearing his emotions on his sleeve. If he was pissed, she’d know before walking in the room. The air would be colder. Sometimes he would come back from a “meeting” with the Talon enforcers with a limp he hadn’t had before. Those days he would shut himself off into his quarters for several days, licking his wounds so to speak. But once in a while, if the blue moon was out and he was actually pleased with something, she’d feel his rich laughter deep in her own lungs like thick, black smoke from a dazzling forest fire, sounding so young, maybe even alive. Even if he was laughing at her expense, she’d smile because she was just happy he wasn’t in pain. Gabe’s emotions were contagious. He had presence that couldn’t be ignored. Despite her best efforts, his fiery joy was a second-hand high she rarely experienced. They both knew he didn’t want to be happy, but she tried anyway. It was always worth trying.

           Widowmaker had been harder to get a read on. Sometimes she would make cutting remarks to Sombra, Gabe, and the others only to look disappointed when their comebacks didn’t have as much venom to them as hers did. She obviously didn’t like how they tiptoed around her like she was delicate instead of dangerous, but Sombra couldn’t help but pitying her. She and Gabe cared for her the most out of anyone it seemed. Maybe this was because they knew what had made her this way. They’d been present for some of the rare flashes of fear that occasionally surfaced from the sea of her alternating expressions of boredom and cruelty.

           The real moment when Sombra became certain that Widowmaker wasn’t as dead inside as she was supposed to be was when she had spotted the woman on Talon’s security feed last autumn. She’d been waiting for an abnormally large download while flipping through the security cameras late one night. They’d mostly been empty hallways and agents sleeping, but near the end of loop Sombra found a feed showing one of the cameras that watched the southern balcony. Widowmaker had just been leaning on the railing, looking at the starless sky. Sombra had tabbed out of the feed, feeling like she was invading something no one had the right to see. Eventually she’d checked again out of curiosity and was startled to see that Widowmaker was now sitting on the railing, staring at the long drop below. Both women had sat there on different sides of the feed completely still for a solid four minutes before Widowmaker had unknowingly broke the tension by letting herself fall backwards back onto the balcony into a handstand and then falling forwards onto her feet with innate grace. From there she walked back to her room without the slightest hint of emotion, as usual.

           Sombra sympathized with her comrades, but she wasn’t stupid. Whatever humanity was within them was matched in greater part by their malice. If there was a way for the two of them to recover from years of brainwashing and torture, it wouldn’t have anything to do with her. What did she know about that kind of forgiveness? At the end of the day, if Reaper or Widowmaker were ordered to kill her, they would do it. It was toss up as to whether they would dread or enjoy such a mission, but that didn’t matter so much to Sombra when the outcome remained the same.

           Without these old friends to babysit her, Sombra was allowed to sever all communications with the agency if she saw it fit.  This was something she almost always took advantage of, for personal reasons rather than practical. She liked having an escape route, an ace in the hole, a back door. She’d grown into the habit of planning her emergency exit from before her second step inside the door. She believed it was this habit of hers that kept her alive during the war, knowing when to run, always staying alert, never dropping her guard. That was part of why she’d planned her mission the way she did. The targets aboard the cruise ship would be easy to contact and interrogate where the boat was at now, but if something went wrong, as unlikely as it was, she could be trapped in the middle of an ocean without back up. That was one of the downsides of working without Talon.

           As luck would have it though, her latest assignment wasn’t as time sensitive as Volskaya. She was given three weeks to plan and see the mission through. The past ten days had been spent setting everything up. This involved retrieving any and all files detailing the personal and professional lives of her targets, running background checks on all guests and staff, securing discreet travel and living quarters, and repairing one of her travel hard drives.

           Obviously the broken hard drive hadn’t been part of her initial plans, but on her hyper-train to Oasis, she had the misfortune of sitting next to somebody with a forty ounce cup of soda and butt-load of jet lag. The hard drive had been in the brief case by her feet, accompanied about half way through the ride by most of the soda. The guy was nice enough about it, at least. He bought her some candy from train cart after she’d return from cleaning her pants off in the bathroom and told her about how the time his daughter did the exact same thing to his tablet when she was a girl. Sombra decided then that she’d lift the money for the new parts from a friend’s bank account instead of his.

           But now the entire computer was repaired, the schedule was in order, and all that she could do now was continue surveillance until tomorrow. She’d infiltrate the college, secure the artifact, eliminate the target, and call it a day… At least that’s what would be in her report.

           Her personal mission was a little more complicated. The interview with Katya Volskaya had simply been a matter of getting in the room with her. Any rational person would realize how much more favorable it would be to simply comply with her demands considering the dirt she had on her. This time she would be interviewing several people in one night without a gun and without a translocator, blackmailing people who were much further from the public eye, many without families. But she wasn’t so worried. Simple blackmail wasn’t the only trick up her sleeve.

            Sombra rubbed her tired eyes and glanced around her room, letting out a sigh. It sure wasn’t much, but she’d stayed in worse places. At least she had a window, albeit a tiny one. Her hammock was bearable, her computer set up was doable, and she didn’t have to worry about being surprised. The camera set up was fantastically extensive. With a swipe of her finger she could locate and track anyone on the ship she wanted.

            Sombra smirked. She still needed to kill time before she moved forward with phase two, and a wonderful little idea had just popped into her head… How had she not thought of this earlier? She leaned back over her keyboard and her fingers were a flurry of clicking nails and system commands. Within minutes she had control of every automated system on the ship from her comfy little hideaway in Oasis. All she had to do now was decide who she wanted to mess with first.

            “ _¡_ _No manches!_ ” she snickered. It was just too fucking easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't been updating! Classes started and it's been difficult to find the time, creative energy, actual energy, motivation... etc.. etc.. but I want to keep updating this! This chapter is focused around Sombra, obviously, but let me know what you think about the semi-reveal of her plan. I'm a little worried it'll seem like I'm spoiling things... Hopefully that's not the case though! And seriously thank you guys so much for the nice words and kudos!! I really really appreciate it!! :>
> 
> (Also I think I used "no manches" correctly, but if you speak spanish and can correct me, please do)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not very experienced in writing fan fiction, but I will try to keep characters as accurate to their portrayal in game as possible. This work will make references to previous Overwatch comics or ARG, but knowledge of either won't be completely necessary I don't think. I want to try and include other heroes as I go, but this is just a start! I have several ideas of where I would like to take this, but only a few things are set in stone (which is why I've already tagged the pairing).  
> I would love any feedback or suggestions you could give me! :)


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